TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel announced Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who vanished in the United Arab Emirates has been located. The rabbi was assassinated in what Israel called a horrific act of antisemitic hate.
Israel will do all in its power to bring the criminals who killed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to justice, according to a statement released by his office. The UAE did not immediately respond.
The 28-year-old ultra-Orthodox rabbi Zvi Kogan, who vanished on Thursday, operated a Kosher grocery store in Dubai, a modern city that has drawn Israeli tourists and businesspeople since the two nations established diplomatic relations in the 2020 Abraham Accords.
The agreement has endured almost a year of rising regional tensions brought on by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. However, following months of conflict with the militant Hezbollah group, Israel’s catastrophic retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon have inflamed the ire of Emiratis, Arab nationalities, and other UAE residents.
Following a series of airstrikes Israel launched in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack, Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah, has also threatened to respond against Israel.
A request for comment from the Emirati government was not answered.
The state-run WAM news agency in the United Arab Emirates acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance early on Sunday, but it made a point of denying that he was an Israeli national, instead referring to him as Moldovan. Kogan was reported missing and unreachable by the Emirati Interior Ministry.
According to the Interior Ministry, specialized agencies launched search and investigative efforts as soon as they received the notification.
Isaac Herzog, the mostly ceremonial president of Israel, expressed his disapproval of the murder and commended the Emirati government for acting quickly. He expressed his confidence that they would put forth endless effort to apprehend the offenders.
Kogan was a representative of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a well-known and extremely perceptive subset of ultra-Orthodox Judaism with its headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights area of New York City. According to it, he was last spotted in Dubai. The Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates is growing, and there are synagogues and establishments that serve kosher food.
Kogan oversaw the Rimon Market, a Kosher supermarket on the crowded Al Wasl Road in Dubai, which was closed on Sunday. Online protests by pro-Palestinian activists have targeted the store as the hostilities have raged around the area. When an Associated Press reporter visited the market on Sunday, it looked as though the mezuzahs on the front and rear doors had been torn off.
Rivky, Kogan’s American wife, resided with him in the United Arab Emirates. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who perished in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is her niece.
Abu Dhabi is located in the United Arab Emirates, an authoritarian confederation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula. In the United Arab Emirates, local Jewish officials chose not to comment.
Although Iran was not mentioned in the Israeli statement, Iranian intelligence agents had previously abducted people in the United Arab Emirates.
According to Western officials, Iran monitors the hundreds of thousands of Iranians residing in the United Arab Emirates and conducts intelligence operations there.
Although Tehran has denied participation, Iran is accused of kidnapping and killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013. In 2020, Iran also abducted Jamshid Sharmahd, a German Iranian national, from Dubai and brought him back to Tehran, where he was put to death in October.
___
Gambrell reported from the United Arab Emirates, specifically Dubai.
The Associated Press, 2024. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. It is prohibited to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this content without authorization.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!